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Today in Canadian politics, All Liberal MP’s voted against an NDP private member bill which would make it easier for people with disabilities to access government services.
This is what the bill does:
SUMMARY
This enactment amends the Department of Employment and Social Development Act to require the Minister to provide information and guidance on applications for programs and services for which persons with disabilities may be eligible and to implement a streamlined application process that, among other things, reduces the administrative burden on applicants. It also provides for reporting requirements in relation to the application process.
Full text of the bill here.
If you’re Canadian and disabled, the Liberals don’t care about making your life easier.
Not surprised
This is so necessary though!!!
For people who don’t know what the application process is currently like, as a person with multiple mental illnesses just trying to get basic financial assistance, I had to send in:
fourteen pages of forms
3 page form from a psychiatrist
a letter explaining my situation
6 months of bank statements with the transactions labelled
list anyone who had “helped” me in any way in the past year (including things like “buying me groceries”)
A letter from anyone I babysat for in the past year
“pay slips” from babysitting
A letter from my parents saying they were no longer supporting me
A copy of my university diploma
proof I was a Canadian Citizen (which they tried to claim showing them my citizenship card wasn’t enough for?!)
And after all that they delayed my application for a month by sending me 6 pages of parental contribution forms, which my parents who have a PhD and Masters degree couldn’t understand, and which weren’t applicable to me as a university graduate anyway. Which they knew. And if I had sent them in would have disqualified me from benefits.
Then 6 months later I lost my disability status, cutting my income almost in half, with no warning or explanation, because my psychiatrist hadn’t checked a box to say I would never recover from depression and anxiety, therefore making it a “short term” medical problem.
I was incredibly lucky to find a volunteer organisation to help me through the process, which would have literally been impossible for me otherwise. This isn’t just a case of ‘streamlining’ the application process. This is a case of disabled people being homeless and starving because access to programs legally required to help us is fucking obstacle course.
My entire job literally revolves around helping people with intellectual disabilities and their families navigate the services, supports, and programs available to them in our province and as Canadians. As in, it’s a full-time fucking job to navigate all this, and we expect people with disabilities and their families to do it on top of everything else.
This is partisanship at its worst, and it’s an epidemic not just in Parliament but also across provincial legislatures. There is such an unwillingness from parties in power to vote for bills put forth by others, even when they make sense or align with that party’s own agenda.
This link:
https://openparliament.ca/bills/42-1/C-348/ provides all of the readings in the House of Commons that took place on January 30th 2018 with regards to Bill C-348
From browsing the comments made, it seems the Liberals didn’t support it, even though they seem to be in agreement about its need, because:
a.) In 2019 they will introduce disability legislation of their own. So they don’t see any point in supporting the NDP bill now. Because why not fix this problem now?
I’m also not seeing any direct claim from their liberals that their legislation will specifically address this issue when they table it. There’s a lot of talk of generalities when it comes to disabilities and accessibility.
b.) They think streamlining disability applications by eliminating the need for multiple forms to prove your disability would make the system more difficult, not easier. Even when NDP members explained how it would make the system more efficient, the Liberals said they still wouldn’t support it. I’m really not following this logic at all.
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